How many hives did you loose? How do they look now? Are they still going backwards?

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Re: How many hives did you loose? How do they look now? Are they still going backwar

Re: How many hives did you loose? How do they look now? Are they still going backwar

I agree with Ian, So that being said I'm running better then normal about 16%. They look good and eating pollen sub.
I have a Fall loss number, and a winter loss number. Since I'm always growing March thru August I don't really know what my peak number is until August or September. Sadly to say. Some get lost in the Move of things. Eventually they all come home.
I'm probably one of those beekeepers that Harry refers too as I run too many hives and can't keep track of them all. I have 1 full time employee and up to 4 part time employee's in the summer and thru out the year.

Re: How many hives did you loose? How do they look now? Are they still going backwar

well it seems none of you experienced what we did.
Good hives gone bad in no time. they made a honey crop and fell apart.
i have now made my conclusion that this was due to higher than normal chemical use by crop farmers and zero rain to wash the residues away.

yes i understand that the bees can be made up just as quickly as they die. we cant continue to count on that.
we need to see these signs and find a solution.

its obvious something happened this year. there are thousands of hives missing from the almond pollination. and i want to know why?????

I mean Kieth come on your so in tune with bees and beekeeping you must be hearing it all over the place. how come *********** didnt send bees to CA this year? or how about ********** ****. O yeah and ***** ***** only sent 2 loads??

Re: How many hives did you loose? How do they look now? Are they still going backwar

Im up here sitting in a snow bank and Im hearing of huge outfits with little to no bees to send to the almonds. Im hearing of prices of well over $200 per hive. This is all grape vine talk, but its coming from somewhere, right? How is it shaping up down there?

Re: How many hives did you loose? How do they look now? Are they still going backwar

Benstung: If you figure "high water" mark to "high water" mark on an annual basis we lose zero. If you figure "high water" mark to what makes it into almonds we figure a 20% loss plus or minus a little. This year for some reason we have more hives that will make it into almonds by quite a bit, however, my personal feelings are that we may not have quite the overall strength as last year. I have spoken with several of the larger commercials and at least some are anticipating higher then normal loses.

Harry: One of my better friends is (as I believe you were if I'm not mistaken) a former inspector that still runs bees. We have had this same discussion. While he is far more respectful and far less sensitive about the topic, we are in complete agreement that there are many factors involved in typical annual "survival" rates.....locations, pollination vs honey production and numbers managed just to mention a few. I applaud your >5% survival rate......in my younger days I strived to do the same by doing it all myself. Unfortunately, I had loans to pay, kids to raise and a wife to care for and found it difficult to make it work when just starting out. I changed the operation by expanding, budgeting in loses and doing far less of the physical work myself. May be 'half assed' in your book but a winning formula for me. Personally, I'm in this business to show a profit.

Re: How many hives did you loose? How do they look now? Are they still going backwar

I think it's important to note that the whole bee supply situation as relates to Almond pollination where over a million hives are needed is pretty hard for any one person to analyze. Beekeepers can be secretive and rumors travel pretty fast. There do seem to be more stories about beekeepers coming up short this year than most years. The people I talk to seem to think that there may very well be some shortages and the $200 figure may well be a reality in some scattered instances but on the whole prices may only go up 5 to 10 dollars over last year. That's just my guess and it's based on limited information.

"People will generally accept facts as truth only if the facts agree with what they already believe."- Andy Rooney

Re: How many hives did you loose? How do they look now? Are they still going backwar

Originally Posted by benstung

I mean Kieth come on your so in tune with bees and beekeeping you must be hearing it all over the place. how come *********** didnt send bees to CA this year? or how about ********** ****. O yeah and ***** ***** only sent 2 loads??

Re: How many hives did you loose? How do they look now? Are they still going backwar

Originally Posted by benstung

. you can watch them cluster

Noop, warm'in up here putting 4lbs sub an a gallon and a half of straight sucros
Got a close freind in TEXASS, I've been helping him out on how to run bees, He told me over the weekend his are the best he's seen at this time of year. He said for the first time he is going to fill the whole 48ft truck up.
Ben, are you sure it's not the guy running the bees that has to do with the way they look?

Re: How many hives did you loose? How do they look now? Are they still going backwar

It is all about location and business model. When a young man in North Dakota, most commerical guys would save 20% of their colonies to go to Texas after Christmas and the rest got gassed. Was that an 80% winter or annual loss? How many bees or colonies you have is not as important as when you have them. Taking losses in the fall is indeed admirable, but if you are in Canada where southern refills are not an option, one is going to roll the farmer dice and keep all those marginal colonies. What a bunch of grumpy old men!

Re: How many hives did you loose? How do they look now? Are they still going backwar

Originally Posted by Vance G

a young grumpy man wouldn't realize he was being talked about!

You might be right about that but I'll tell ya what.....there are a boatload of young grouches out there. When you get to be my age, it's hard to figure...how can anyone who is thirty five be grumpy....short of somebody hitting them over the head.

Dan www.boogerhillbee.com
Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards